|
More than 115 years after the signing of the Golden Law (1), slavery is still a reality in Brazil, especially on the sugarcane plantations.
The sugar sector is in full expansion because the programmed liberalization of international trade supports the modes of production in this country.
The big multinationals, often American and European, do not make any mistakes, and they have been investing massively in Brazil for the past few years.
However, in their failure to respect workers' rights in this sector, they are now about to put in place a modern form of slavery and to import sugar produced under appalling conditions.
The "big ones" in the sugar industry in 2003 adopted a code of conduct for social responsibility in their companies which they actually presented as exemplary. But this code, beyond its insufficiencies and the limits inherent in this kind of action, does not apply beyond the European borders.
There is therefore a strong need to demand of the companies, and in particular of Tereos, the major foreign group in Brazil, that they extend their engagements to the whole line of companies.
The Lives of the Sugar Cutters
Antonio Malaquias is 35 years old. He is a sugarcane cutter. He borrowed money to come and look for work in the area of Piracicaba (state de São Paulo), one of the modern centers of alcohol sugar in the country.
A decision which cost him dear for he is so far indebted today that it is impossible for him to go back to his wife and his 5 children, whereas what he wanted to do was to bring money back to them.
The cutters often rise at 4:30 to take a bus which takes them over to their work place where they arrive 1 ½ hours later. Once at work, the rhythm is infernal, because the number of canes that they cut will determine their wages.
In the evening, the same 1 ½ bus trip back again. Once back at their lodgings, the workers have to prepare the food that they will take along to the field the next day, which has given them the nickname of "bóias frias" (cold chow).
The cutting season, which lasts 5 to 8 months in the year, causes the displacement of thousands of Brazilians, originating in particular from the areas in the North, the Northeast and the South.
In Piracicaba, these migrants account for 80% of the population. The large majority among them do not have any Social Security cover. Most of them are illiterate and the cutters are predominantly men, from 18 to 45 years of age.
Many fall sick because of the differences in climate conditions, without counting the industrial accidents that make many victims.
The rate of suicides in this social category is well above the average. For lack of means, they are often forced to remain at the work place once the season is over, but without work.
These infernal living conditions are denounced by Brazilian organizations like the FERAESP, Federation of the Paid Rural Employees of São Paulo, which works daily to improve the situation.
Putting an End to Slave Work
In fact, many Brazilian unemployed are reduced to slavery through a system of bound work (2). Agents for the big landowners recruit them promising good wages.
But once there, they must refund their travel costs, buy their tools and rent a lodging. They are indebted before they have even begun to work.
In 1995, the government created the Secretariat of Labor Inspection, which acts in collaboration with the police force to fight against this plague.
With President Lula coming to power, the Brazilian State reinforced this fight. But progress is difficult. It is actually necessary for a worker to denounce his employer so that the facts can be proven.
Moreover, the number of federal civil servants is insufficient. So in the end, poverty forces the unemployed to silently endure the worst possible conditions.
Nevertheless there are some positive signs. Denunciations multiply and, in 2004, the federal police force liberated a large number of people in a position "of modern slavery", to use the proper term, in the town of Piracicaba.
It is in this area that the majority of the investments of European companies is concentrated.
The Multinationals Concerned
In preparation for the reform of the sugar market, European investments, particularly French ones, increased considerably in Brazil over the past few years.
This sector is undergoing great changes. With the merger-acquisition of Beghin Say by Union SDA, the new group, Tereos, became the major foreign group in the country, along with other companies like Louis Dreyfus, the German companies Sudzucker and Nordzucker, British Sugar, Swiss Glencore and Alcotra and American Cargill.
However, most of the slave work problems are related to the subcontracting of labor, which is a common practice in this sector. The multinationals that way get out of their responsibilities.
However, in 2003, the European sugar industry in a very high-profile way committed themselves to a voluntary process of social and environmental responsibility by adopting a code of conduct.
Even if this voluntary step is insufficient to guarantee social and environmental conditions that would be satisfactory in this sector (3), this code could still help the trade unions in the South to obtain improvements.
On condition however that the text is not limited to Europe which is the case at the present time! It is thus essential that the multinationals concerned, first of all Tereos which has room for maneuver and has substantial possibilities of influence, respect their own engagements for the whole line of companies starting with the sugarcane plantations.
(1) Brazil has "imported" millions of African slaves to develop the raw materials and tropical products that are of interest to the "Colonial Mother", Portugal. After independence (1822), slavery continued for the profit of the rich landowners. The "Golden Law" which officially put an end to this was signed in 1888.
.
(2) Cf Call n°236 of Network-Solidarity (May 24, 2001): Brazil - so as not to finish as a slave. Between 25,000 and 30,000 workers are probably in a position of slavery in Brazil.
(3) Cf "Codes of control, Tool for social progress or an advertising ploy?", published by Interdependent People, 2004, 114 p. The reform of the sugar market of the European Union, the Common Organization of the Sugar Market (OCM-sugar) ensured stable export earnings for a small number of ACP countries (Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific).
But the export subsidies of European sugar (beets) caused a dumping on the other markets, and a fall in the prices. The equilibrium in the sugar market is changing considerably on a world level. The complete liberalization of the European market is planned for 2009.
Moreover, the complaint lodged by Brazil, Thailand and Australia with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the European sugar policy ran out on April 28 of last year, and this will require new negotiations.
These changes were anticipated by the multinationals which invested massively in the countries of the South to profit from liberalization.
Translated by Axis of Logic Correspondent, Siv O'Neall, Lyon, France
Cyber Acteurs
http://www.cyberacteurs.org
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
pnogjr - 07/06/2005